How does user behaviour change once tablets are involved? How can data be collected and retrieved in a creative way? Which software do you use to make an interactive webdocumentary? What are good open source platforms?

Documentaries and digital technologies have never been closer to each other than today. Online tools can offer creative ways to tell your story and interact with your audience, collect and unlock data.

WebDox 2013 focuses on thestate of the artof the interactive webdocumentaries and on its technical aspects. WebDox brings the world of documentaries closer to the digital world, creates a notion about how to sharpen a story, reach a public and engage it. Webdox kicks off with an interesting conference on May 6th in Leuven (more information WebDox2013.wordpress.com).

Following the conference, iDROPS organizes a creative Doc Jam LAB on May 7th, a two-day Tech LAB on May 8th and 9th and a development LAB: Doc Hothouse from June 19th to 21st.

How do you create interactive and engaging documentaries?Why do you need to engage audiences on multiple platforms?
What happens when games and documentaries collide?

These are some crucial questions that will be answered during Doc Jam, the creative LAB in the WEBDOX series.

Are you a documentarymaker, app or game developer, game designer, creative or interactive who wants to explore the creative and commercial potential of new types of interactive documentaries? Then you can jam together with other documentary makers and digital peeps within the interactive, multimedia and online world.
You can discover how to tell stories across multiple platforms, integrate social media, games and let your audience grow in today’s crowded media environment.

What will you learn and do during Doc Jam?

You get to know new digital technologies and the possibilities they bring with it for documentaries.

Think about new interactiveconcepts for documentaries that enable you to reach a bigger audience and engages people with the content.

You think about ways to tell a documentary across multiple platforms.

You form interesting collaborations with other documentary filmmakers and digital people.

Dox & Tech Lab: Codes for engaging dox.

May 8th & 9th in Leuven.

The world of coding is revealed to the documentary makers by a team of techies with a soft spot for dox.

You will do interactive coding and apply it to your documentaries.

You will think of new ways to create content for the web.

You will try new ways of creating documentaries.

Exploring HTLM5 and Open video

This part is oriented to everyone being curious: filmmakers with no skills, general public and coders with little knowledge of HTML5. This session will show you how to mix and remix video, audio, photos and links using the internet. You will develop audiovisual mix-tapes from online audiovisual sources.

What will you learn and do?

You will get an introduction to the creative possibilities of HTML5: HTML, CSS, Javascript.

Online video and audio: why it is important that video and audio were HTML elements, video/audio formats, browsers, interaction with HTML elements.

You’ll watch a video in a HTML document, check the code and features.

Use of javascript to develop video/audio events

Practice: Using the native javascript API

Take a look at frameworks and tools to develop video/audio on the net

Use of popcorn.js, $media and audio APIs

You will design a collaborative project. One of the options for that collaborative project is to use some of the material provided by filmmakers, hack it and transform it in a web-document.

Web-generated video

There are new ways to approach content and strategies to use it in webdocs. Everything will be online.

We’ll show you some of the options available to create web-generated content and how to apply that content to documentary projects. This session is oriented to coders and to filmmakers with some knowledge of HTML5, APIs and Javascript.

Strategies for integrate content created by independent users/spectators.

Practice. From a film provided by users, design, planning and building of a demo mixing web-generated content and video. If attendants cannot provide content, the workshop will work on free online content.

Doc Jam and Dox & Tech Lab will be followed by Doc Hothouse some weeks later. In this three-day development lab eight teams build their interactive web documentary idea into a technically strong concept, supported by a business model and distribution strategy.

The best ideas will be developed to projects ready for production. The primary goal of Doc Hothouse is to help participants find a commercial strategy and business model. This is done through several methods such as lateral thinking and brainstorming sessions, individually and via group sessions. The highlight of Doc Hothouse is a pitching session where the teams present their projects to each other and to the mentors. The teams recieve useful feedback on the creative and business potential of their ideas.

During Doc Hothouse you will learn:The new features of convergent cross platform markets;

A framework in which you can analyze the strengths and weaknesses of your project to develop a strong strategy;

Which professionals from other sectors (eg accounting, technical, …) you should talk to;

To experiment with new business models;

IP and contractual issues;

Business development analysis;

Relationship Modeling.

Doc Hothouse offers you:

Presentations by speakers with specific expertise and creative entrepreneurs who are facing similar challenges

Facilitated discussions

The use of tools applicable to their own project

Sessions with mentors where participants are assisted in shaping a business plan based on new products and services

REGISTRATION WEBDOX

Participants should register by sending an email to info@iDROPS.be . With this email you need to include a motivation, description of why you’d like to attend, and a short biography, please submit all of this in English.

For the Development Lab, you also submit a brief description of your idea / project. Prices to attend are as follows:

Hofstra's L. Herbert School of Communication is looking to fill a tenure-track position in Emerging Media. Interested in developing a program in interactive/immersive media in the heart of the media capital? Applications accepted till position is filled. ... See MoreSee Less